This invention relates to an apparatus for treating a dyed or printed textile web with a liquid such as a washing or rinsing solution.
German Patent No. 830 040 discloses in principle a technique of spraying a treatment solution onto a moving textile web at several points spaced one behind the other along the direction of transport of the web, most of the solution applied at any particular spray station being removed from the fabric by suction before additional solution is applied to the web at a further point. In German Patent No. 830,040, the textile web is conducted freely, under small looping angles, along successive spray and suction pipes or over a suction drum, over the circumference of which drum spray pipes acting radially inwardly are distributed. Such a treatment of a fabric requires that the web have a minimum textile strength. Accordingly, the treatment is unsuitable for material such as knitted fabrics.
As disclosed in German Patent Document (Offenlegungsschrift) No. 23 62 109, an endless sieve belt passes over a pair of guide drums disposed at the same horizontal level, the cloth being spread out on an upper section or segment of the belt so that the cloth can be guided on the belt while the cloth is lying flat and completely slack. Above the upper section of the sieve belt, spray pipes are arranged for applying a washing or rinsing liquid to the cloth lying on the belt. Subsequently, the applied liquid, laden with dirt or dye residues, is removed by suction through the cloth and through the sieve belt.
The distance between the point of application of the liquid and the suction point is relatively short, with the consequence that the liquid has little time to act on the substances which are to be removed from the web.
German Petty Patent (Gebrauchsmuster) No. 17 40 815 discloses a boot-like water-filled washing chamber in which chamber the fabric is placed in a stacked configuration in order to lengthen the contact time of the washing liquid with the substances to be removed from the fabric web. This procedure, however, is unsuitable for many applications, exemplarily in the case of knitted materials, such knitted materials being difficult to draw out of the stack because of the sensitivity of the material to tension. The solution of the Gebrauchsmuster is also unsuitable in the case that the web is provided with printed matter, smudges in the printed matter arising upon stacking of the web.
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved apparatus of the above-described type.
Another, more particular, object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus in which a washing or rinsing may be adequately effectuated without maintaining the textile web in a stacked configuration.